The Common Good

   The Common Good

Do you ever think you're "The Road Runner" being chased by your government and coming to the edge of a ravine and you, the Runner, stop but the baddie, the government, can't stop so over the edge it goes to doom. Watching the national news gives me this image and presses a dour feeling within me.

Pottstown has experienced the loss of industry, and with it went good paying jobs held by blue collar workers and semi-skilled white collared ones. These jobs are not coming back in this new employment climate where Washington is grounded in the fallacy of consumption as the prime driving force of our economy.

How do the under employable gain an income today?
Many won't, not until our nation puts a value on our common assets; such as, water ways, public parks, roadways and highways, shore lines, and public lands.

It takes a renewed effort to better prioritize public values in favor of this generation, as well as, all the generations yet unborn. We are a young nation with a golden beginning for a small minority of our citizen families who, like the money barons at the turn of the Twentieth Century that gave for posterity parks, monuments, buildings, and institutions, need to follow in their footsteps.

When values change on the national level than worth at the local level will also change allowing jobs to be created to take care of common assets. In other words, we need a present day version of the New Deal concept of The CCC during the Great Depression of the last Century.

Look around and ask yourself, what needs getting done that isn't being done? Remember, work must be designed for the betterment of us all which each of us is willing to value therefore pay someone to do it.
Many workers would come first from the roles of people already being paid from public funds. 

I realize this will be a hard sell especially for those self motivated, up by their boot straps, super independents. When they realize they are part of the common good crowd, they too will see value in  "The Common Good."

Ronald C. Downie